SYNERGISTIC COMBINATION OF BUTYRIC-ACID-PRODUCING PREBIOTICS AND PROBIOTICS

Abstract

A synergistic combination of butyric-acid-producing prebiotics and probiotics, which is used in the fields of foods, dietary supplements and drugs. Specifically, a composition containing probiotics and prebiotics, a food, dietary supplement or pharmaceutical preparation including the composition, and the use of the composition for alleviating and improving a disease or a discomfort, or reducing the occurrence of a disease or a discomfort, wherein the disease or discomfort is related to insufficient butyric acid in the intestine, or to insufficient butyric-acid-producing microorganisms in the intestine. A method for promoting Bifidobacterium lactis HNO19 to produce butyric acid, the method including using a galactooligosaccharide and lactulose as carbon sources for the cultivation of Bifidobacterium lactis HNO19, wherein the weight ratio of the galactooligosaccharide to lactulose is 1:1 to 4:1.

Claims

1. A composition comprising galactooligosaccharide, lactulose and Bifidobacterium lactis HNO19, wherein a weight ratio of galactooligosaccharide to lactulose is 1:1.

2. A food comprising the composition according to claim 1.

3. The food according to claim 2, wherein the food is used to alleviate, ameliorate a disease or a discomfort, or to reduce the occurrence of a disease or a discomfort, and the disease or discomfort is associated with an insufficiency of butyric acid in the intestine, or an insufficiency of butyric acid-producing microorganisms in the intestine.

4. A dietary supplement comprising the composition according to claim 1.

5. The dietary supplement according to claim 4, wherein the dietary supplement is used to alleviate, ameliorate a disease or a discomfort, or to reduce the occurrence of a disease or a discomfort, and the disease or discomfort is associated with an insufficiency of butyric acid in the intestine, or an insufficiency of butyric acid-producing microorganisms in the intestine.

6. A method for preparing a food or dietary supplement, wherein the food or dietary supplement comprising the composition according to claim 1 is used to alleviate, ameliorate a disease or a discomfort, or to reduce the occurrence of a disease or a discomfort, and the disease or discomfort is associated with an insufficiency of butyric acid in the intestine, or an insufficiency of butyric acid-producing microorganisms in the intestine.

7. A method for promoting the production of butyric acid by Bifidobacterium lactis HNO19 comprising using galactooligosaccharide and lactulose as a carbon source for culturing Bifidobacterium lactis HNO19, wherein the weight ratio of galactooligosaccharide to lactulose is 1:1-4:1.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the method is performed in vitro and comprising the following steps: providing a medium suitable for the growth of Bifidobacterium lactis HNO19, and the medium comprises galactooligosaccharide and lactulose as a carbon source; and inoculating Bifidobacterium lactis HNO19 into the medium of step 1 and cultivating under anaerobic conditions suitable for the growth of Bifidobacterium lactis HNO19.

9. A composition for promoting the production of butyric acid by Bifidobacterium lactis HNO19 comprising galactooligosaccharide and lactulose, wherein the weight ratio of galactooligosaccharide to lactulose is 1:1-4:1.

10. The composition according to claim 1, wherein the composition comprises 10.sup.6 Cfu/100 g - 10.sup.12 Cfu/100 g of Bifidobacterium lactis HNO19.

11. The composition according to claim 1, further comprising an excipient or dispersant.

12. The composition according to claim 1, wherein in the composition, galactooligosaccharide and lactulose together comprise at least 50% by weight of the composition.

13. The composition according to claim 1, wherein the composition consists of galactooligosaccharide, lactulose, and Bifidobacterium lactis HNO19.

14. The food according to claim 2, wherein the food is a liquid food, a semi-liquid food, a solid food or a semi-solid food.

15. The food according to claim 2, wherein the food is an infant formula or an infant food supplement.

16. The food according to claim 2, wherein the food is a dairy product, a chocolate or chocolate product or a grain product.

17. The dietary supplement according to claim 4, wherein a dosage form of the dietary supplement is selected from the group consisting of a pill, a capsule, a tablet, a granule and a liquid preparation.

18. The dietary supplement according to claim 4, further comprising a nutritional ingredient selected from the group consisting of protein, carbohydrate, lipid, mineral, vitamin, amino acid, unsaturated fatty acid, polyphenol, phytosterol, and a mixture thereof.

19. The method according to claim 7, wherein the method is used to promote the production of butyric acid by Bifidobacterium lactis HNO19 in vitro.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0077] The embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the examples, but a person having ordinary skill in the art will understand that the following examples are only used to illustrate the present invention, and should not be regarded as limiting the scope of the present invention.

Example 1 Growth Test of Bifidobacterium lactis HNO19

[0078] Bifidobacterium lactis HNO19 was purchased from Danisco. The strain was cultured in de Man Rogosa Sharpe (MRS) broth (Difco, Detroit, Md.) supplemented with 0.5 g/LL-cysteine and incubated for 24 h at 37° C. under anaerobic conditions. Subsequently, the cultures were passaged twice in semi-synthetic MRS (sMRS) medium supplemented with 0.5 g/LL-cysteine and 1% (w/v) filter sterilized glucose as the sole carbohydrate source.

[0079] After the second passage, the culture was prepared for use as inoculum for the growth tests described below. Various carbon source stock solutions were sterilized by passing through 0.22 micron filters and used at 1% final concentration.

[0080] HNO19 was inoculated into different medium at an amount of OD600 reading of 0.1. MRS+0.05% cysteine medium was supplemented with 1% galactooligosaccharide (GOS), 1% lactulose (LOS) and 1% GOS/LOS composition, respectively. The contents of lactic acid, acetic acid, propionic acid and butyric acid in the above-mentioned various combined culture broths were measured by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) at 12 hours.

[0081] As shown in Table 1, when using GOS/LOS 1:1 and 4:1 as carbon sources, the production of butyric acid was significantly higher than that of GOS or LOS alone as the carbon source. As to the concentrations of other organic acids and the total amount of organic acids, the results of the GOS/LOS combination group were all between the GOS group and the LOS group alone.

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Contents of organic acids in the culture medium Lactic acid Acetic acid Propionic acid Butyric acid Total amount of organic acid LOS 0.034 ± 0.002 0.238 ± 0.002 ND ND 0.272 ± 0.004 GOS 0.374 ± 0.007 1.081 ± 0.014 ND 0.084 ± 0.004  1.539 ± 0.017 GOS/LOS 0.216 ± 0.019 0.650 ± 0.080 ND 0.248 ± 0.012*# 1.115 ± 0.111 1:1 GOS/LOS 0.176 ± 0.071 0.658 ± 0.002 ND 0.248 ± 0.009*# 1.082 ± 0.078 4:1 GOS/LOS 0.109 ± 0.003 0.699 ± 0.023 ND ND 0.807 ± 0.019 9:1 *vs LOS, p < 0.05; #vs GOS, p < 0.05

[0082] Obviously, the above-mentioned embodiments of the present invention are only examples for clearly illustrating the present invention and are not intended to limit the embodiments of the present invention. For a person having ordinary skill in the art, changes or modifications in other different forms can also be made on the basis of the above-mentioned description, and it is impossible to list all the embodiments here. All obvious changes or changes derived from the technical solutions of the present invention are still within the protection scope of the present invention.